From November to December 2012, BBC ARABIC technology programme, 4 Tech dedicated a series of 3 report on Robots and Avatars, covered by journalist Anees Al Qudaihi.
The reports explore the creative and technological process of 3 key works presented as part of Robots and Avatars: ‘Outreach‘ an architectural / kinetic conceptual work by Alex Haw (atmos) with Mauritius Seeger (dr. mo), ‘Music for Flesh II‘ an interactive music performance for enhanced body by Marco Donnarumma, and Robots and Avatars Commission ‘Visions of our Communal Dreams‘, a new media art installation blending virtual, physical and networked environments by Michael Takeo Magruder with collaborators.
- 7 November 2012: Marco Donnarumma on ‘Music for Flesh II’ from 15:00 to 20:15. WATCH HERE.
- 1 December 2012: Ghislaine Boddington on ‘Robots and Avatars’ and ‘Visions of our Communal Dreams’ from 18:30 to the end. WATCH HERE
- 9 December 2012: Alex Haw / ATMOS on ‘Outreach’ from 16:00 to 20:40. WATCH HERE

Read Robots and Avatars’ project champion Noel Sharkey‘s opinion column on the mindless use of robots in war in this week edition of the Guardian (3 December 2012).

‘The rational approach to the inhumanity of automating death by machines beyond the control of human handlers is to prohibit it

Are we losing our humanity by automating death?

Human Rights Watch (HRW) thinks so. In a new report, co-published with Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic, they argue the “case against killer robots“. This is not the stuff of science fiction. The killer robots they refer to are not Terminator-style cyborgs hellbent on destroying the human race. There is not even a whiff of Skynet.

These are the mindless robots I first warned Guardian readers about in 2007 – robots programmed to independently select targets and kill them. Five years on from that call for legislation, there is still no international discussion among state actors, and the proliferation of precursor technologies continues unchecked.’

Robots and Avatars Artist Marco Donnarumma was interviewed about Music on Flesh II on BBC ARABIC Technology programme, 4 Tech, in the framework of a 3 episodes coverage dedicated to Robots and Avatars by Anees Al Qudaihi.